Solo: A Star Wars Story Review
Very recently, in a galaxy not so far away...
Our future corporate overlords ran tests, printed out pie charts, and declared to the world known as Earth that the next Star Wars Story movie, not an "Episode," would feature the origins of a fan favorite character. A hard badass that shoots from the hip and oozes cool, no not Boba Fett, and his name is Solo, Han Solo! Jokes aside, this announcement was surprising and underwhelming to the majority of Star Wars fans. A lot argued that we didn't need to see this story, and after watching it...they're sort of right. It's not bad, in fact it's arguably the most completed Star Wars movie when telling a beginning, middle, and end within the recent Disney releases, but it's predictably average.
The film opens up with a not so young Han Solo living it up in the slums on some planet. At this point the Empire is out and flamboyantly paroling the universe. We see Han and his sort of sweetheart Qi'ra trying to escape from...someone. Honestly I don't remember, some subplot that establishes him growing up in a not so nice neighborhood. Anyway, he gets away by signing up for the Empire leaving his sweetheart behind. Han is then transported to a war zone, meets some scoundrels, learns their ways, people die, he meets Chewie, and boom we set up the story for A New Hope.
The movie treats the story as any standard prequel would, which is one of the biggest reasons this movie doesn't stand out from the previous Star Wars releases. Force Awakens essentially rebooted the franchise and gave it life again, Rogue One was meant to showcase the war side of Star Wars, and to an extant they did. Whether you liked or disliked The Last Jedi you can't argue it tried to do something different when talking about legacies and not living up to them. Sadly Solo doesn't have anything going for it. Disney is betting on the nostalgia and love of the characters to get you to see this, but on the surface this is any other movie, or worse it's the exact Star Wars movie you expect them to make.
Everything is stacked against the screenwriter when it comes to prequels. You already know the characters, thus you know where their character arcs should be going. You know nothing bad will happen to the characters thus no stakes are involved. Frankly, it's difficult to find suitable prequels that not only keep you interested, but allows for an exploration of said characters that you haven't seen yet, and it's sad to say that Solo hits all of these roadblocks and goes "Okay." Is the mystery of how Han Solo got his name explained within this movie? Yes. Is the first meeting between Han and Chewie as painful as I can imagine? Yes, but not as painful as one would expect. Are you going to see something stupid like how Han acquires his pistol? Yes. Wait, really? Yes. Solo doesn't throw the audience any curve balls, doesn't give us a new perspective on a respected character that many love, nor tries to step out of the box of a standard prequel, however, that doesn't mean it wasn't enjoyable.
Maybe because Solo is the standard for what a prequel is expected to be is the reason why I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Maybe that ease of watching something I expected, and ticking off a checklist, actually allowed me to turn my brain off to those little scenes and focus on what truly made the film for me a success, and that were those unexpected small throwaway scenes that no one would pay attention to, like how the Empire worked and was related to the people. For example, the war scene. That brief scene of Han in the trenches was amazing. It felt like science fiction WWI, and the way it was shot sold me on this film alone. I'd even argue that that brief scene is better than the entirety of Rogue One as a war film.
Another tidbit I loved was surprisingly Qi'ra. When she was separated from Han she lived a life of her own, and when he meets back up with her she's in a new interesting position of power. Now, that meeting scene should have been swelling with music and Han going bug eyed and emotional, but that's not how the movie played it. Instead it was a casual "Oh, how do you do?" But then we got to see more of Qi'ra and how much she had changed since the last time seeing Han, and as the film continued it became clearer to me that the writers had more fun planning and playing with the Qi'ra character than they did with old young Han, and thus her scenes were far more interesting to me. The way she carries herself, and how you're not sure if you should trust her. Her relationship with Paul Bettany, who had a brief but juicy villain role, was awesome that by the end of this film I kind of wished it were about her, and her perspective rather than Han. He could still be in the film, but show him as the reason why she changed over the years, and when he meets up with her again it'll be in character by casually chatting than what was set up as a swelling meet and greet.
In fact, a lot of the side characters in this film are far more interesting than the actual film itself. The portrayals of Beckett, Han's mentor, Lando, L3, Lando's droid, and a number of other guys totally flesh out an otherwise bland universe. Land's charm and relationship with L3 is sweet and sexy. Like every other Star Wars film the droid of the movie, in this case L3, completely steals the show. Beckett was surprisingly human, and a good mentor to Han. Although, if you look at everyone's motivation and character development it's clear that not much is there and it's only to move the plot around. regardless, all these characters surrounding the titular character are what make the movie and are the characters you'll fall in love with.
Overall, this film is competently made, and from what happened behind the scenes I'm impressed with how well it turned out. I liked the cinematography, the music, the actors and direction, but my biggest problem were what this movie needed to overcome the prequel curse, and instead it steered into it. It may not be the film that fans wanted, and it may not be a great film, but I see Solo: A Star Wars Story as the only recent Star Wars film that feels like a completed movie and I didn't have any big problems with it. Through my groaning and smiles I'd recommend Solo as an entry point into the new Star Wars movies for the casual fan. It's a fun romp with some missteps, but I find it the most successful out of the Disney Star Wars lot.
C+
